Sunday was a pretty emotional day for me. I had my talk prepared for a while...(I'm kind of a psycho like that...have to be prepared or it makes me crazy!...(crazyer?) Then Sunday morning I woke up with a distinct feeling that i needed to go read in the "Our Heritage" book. So I went and found it and started thumbing through it...not exactly sure what I was looking for! Then I came across the part where it tells about Joseph Smith receiving the revelation about the Temple endowment. As soon as I read it, I knew that was what I was supposed to talk about. It talked about how they hadn't finished the temple yet but they wanted to have the blessing of the endowment before they had to begin their trek to Utah. They set up a room and dedicated it in the unfinished temple and started giving the Saints their endowment there. They worked night and day so as many people could receive this blessing as possible before they had to leave. They said this is what sustained them...the knowledge of God's plan for them and that they were sealed together as a family for eternity and that even death could not separate them now.
The thought came to me that we are on a similar journey...but ours is not one of physical hardships.
The challenges we face are the wickedness and temptations of the world. Satan is doing everything he can to have us. He is attacking the very strongest of our church because he knows of the good they will do. I have seen this personally as I watch people I have looked up to for many years falter and question the truth. We need now, like the pioneers, the strength and power that will sustain us and get us through these last days...and that power is found in the Temple. Satan knows that this is where we go gain this strength and that is why he tries so hard to keep us from the temple.
Anyway, I was kind of worried about changing my talk at this point (9:45) but I was having that feeling like when you are sitting in sacrament meeting and you know you have to bear your testimony (stomach doing flip flops, and heart pounding) so I decided I had better do it. As soon as I figured out what I would leave out of my talk so it wouldn't be too long and wrote down a few other thoughts, that feeling left me and I was pretty calm. I was able to give my talk (through lots of tears) but I was able to get through it. I don't think I have ever had the spirit work that strongly through me before. Kind of scares me when I think about it...perhaps it was to prepare me for challenges that are in my future, or maybe it was for someone in the ward. Either way, it has sure strengthened my testimony of the importance of temple work.

So this is what I've been working on the past little while. I wanted to send K.C. something special for Valentines Day, and had this idea of having everyone write him a Valentine message and put them in a little book.

I found this cute little book with blank pages in it at target for a dollar!

Then I filled it up with pictures and quotes and saying's about love and service.

The best part was the messages everyone wrote to K.C.

Thanks for helping me put this together!

This is one of my favorite pictures...so many happy memories of fishing with my boys! Now he is a fisher of men!

Hope he can feel the love we're sending in every page!

strange day

Ok, so I might be losing it. I fell asleep again after Kelley went to work( big mistake) and had strange dreams...not as strange as a couple days ago..(Kelley redecorating our house with purple blankets hanging on the walls???) any way, I woke up and looked at the clock...8:40! That meant I had 20 minutes to get ready and get to racquetball.
So I threw on some clothes and tried to make my hair lay down and ran out the door. While I was driving there, I thought it felt like my pants were in a wad or something, but then I forgot about it and hurried into racquetball. It was just Susan and Keri and Ruth there today and we were standing there talking before we went in to play. I started pulling on my pants cause they felt kind of weird again and Susan looks at me and starts laughing. I look behind me and there is this big bulge right below my bum. Then they were all like "What in the world?" and I reach my hand up my pants and pull out a pair of pink panties! They must have got stuck to my pants in the dryer! Oh man , we all had a good laugh. Then I noticed Keri was staring at my sports bra. I look down at it and sure enough, it was inside out. I had a shirt on over it, but the straps showed and the tag was flying out the back. I really need a mirror in my bedroom.
That wasn't the weirdest part of the day though. When I got up with Kelley to ready K.C.'s email...(which is just like Christmas morning for me every Wednesday...YES! We got one! ) I noticed that the talk I had written (have to speak in Sacrament meeting this Sunday!) was still just minimized so I thought I had better print it out and take it off of there. I started to print it and then realized I was out of ink...I mean all the way out!, so I just saved it and thought I would print it later. Well I went back to print it and it was gone...nowhere to be found. Not in my documents, not in recent documents, not in recycle bin! It was gone! I started freaking out. (It takes me a long time to get my thoughts together!) Then I clicked on the help button (where is my document???) and it said something about a new "documents" place that is supposed to be more convenient and easy to work with. That must be where it has gone to. I followed all the instructions to get to it, but couldn't find it. I don't really like my computer starting up new things without even asking me if I wanted them!. I still don't know how to get there, Candice is coming over tomorrow and hopefully will be able to help me.
Anyway, It made me wonder if that was a sign that my talk was lame and I should say something else! I have had a few other ideas come to me the past few days, and today at class, Brother Gibbons had some great thoughts about temple work. So I think I will revise my talk a little bit and hope it will be OK.

I went up to mom's Friday morning...it was really foggy and smoggy. The air quality here this past week has been really bad. Can't burn a fire and it's sooooo cold! I think what makes it worse is knowing that the sun is shining up there somewhere, but all we see is a sick brown haze. Hope a storm comes in soon to clear this out!

I was jealous of Brenda as I drove up the canyon. The higher I got, the sunnier it was and when I went by Brenda's house, it was clear blue skies!

But then I drove down into Cache Valley and right back into the inversion. I think theirs was even worse than we have down here.

Driving into the valley was like going into some kind of frozen twilight zone. Because of the fog, the trees and bushes and houses and everything were frosted. And it was soooo cold!
The kind of cold that makes your lungs hurt if you breath in too deep. My car temperature just said "ice"

It was quite beautiful though. We talked today in Sunday school about the amazing beauty of our world. This was definitely an evidence of God's love for us... even in the dead of winter, breathtaking beauty! Mom has had quite the week. The home health care lady had done a batch of laundry in the evening and the next morning she found that the floor was flooded. But it was the floor in the bathroom, not by the washer that was wet! The water was coming up the shower drain and overflowing into the bathroom. The whole floor flooded clear out by the freezer. So Brenda called a plumber and a restoration company and they came out to see what was going on. The restoration guy brought some big fans to try to dry the floor up but the carper was in pretty bad shape. The first plumber guys that came out looked at it and couldn't figure out what to do, so they called their boss and he came out. He said the washer, shower and sink back there were all piped into the old septic system. Only the toilet was going into the sewer system. We were wondering why it had worked out alright all of these years, then suddenly it flooded. The plumber said the septic tank must be full so it couldn't take anymore. Mom leaves her hoses running a little bit through the winter so the pipes don't freeze up and he said that might have filled it up too much.

Wow I didn't even know that thing was still even hooked up to any pipes at the house. We changed over to the sewer system back in the early 70's. I didn't really know any different at the time, but remember daddy always telling us to not let the water run and to be real careful not to waste water cause it would fill up the septic tank. Ya, Ya, Ya, We were just silly girls that liked to take long baths with the tub filled clear to the top. Then I remember one time when it did get full. The grass east of the kitchen was all soggy and smelled real bad! We had to have this big pump truck come out and empty it out. Sorry Daddy! If I was you I would have smacked me up side of the head.

So anyway, we were all happy when the city put in a sewer system close enough to our house so we could hook up to that! Why was I talking about the sewer? Oh yeah, the flood.

Anyway, the plumber took apart the floor in the bathroom and found that the pipes all needed to be re-routed into the sewer system. We didn't really know what else to do, mom has to use the shower back there, so Brenda told them to go ahead and fix it.

So they were there all day Friday, hammering, sawing, clanking, and banging. While they were working, I took down all of moms Christmas stuff and put her tree away. Mom sat in the living room with me and told me about all the different decorations as I wrapped them up and put them in the boxes. I think it kind of kept her mind off the noise in the back room. She was uneasy about the guys doing the work. She kept saying they were just teenage boys and didn't know what they were doing. I kept reassuring her that "the boys" boss was the one back there working and he would do a good job!

Well, when they were all done, they tried running everything to make sure it worked OK. All the plumbing worked fine, but he noticed there was water under the washer. He pulled it out and looked at it and said it was leaking from the inside. " How old is this washer?" " Hmmmmmmmmmm I remember when we got it, I was about 13. (Oh man I remember when we got that washer and dryer we were so excited! Our Saturday's in the creepy basement were over! No more scary wringer...I always had nightmaraes about my arm going through that thing, No more hauling baskets of wet laundry up the steep stairs and out to the clothes line...no more scratchy, stiff as a board towels. When I look back on it now though, that time, doing laundry with my mom and my sisters was actually pretty fun. Mom had taught us little songs and rounds to sing (The horn, the horn...it sounds so forlorn) and we would sing and laugh until the job was done.

Anyway, when I figured it out, that would make the washer and dryer 37 years old! I guess it has done it's duty...and then some.

So we decided to try to find her a new one (or used one) They certainly don't make them like they used to. We went to a few stores, hoping to find something pretty inexpensive, but most were around 400 or more. We went into Home Depot, and they had one that seemed pretty reasonable and decided to go ahead and get it. They said they would deliver, set it up, and take away the old one for free so that was a big plus.

We also went to this place called "Cash and Carry" and found a nice piece of carpet to put in her bathroom. They are going to install that next week for her. My mom and sisters sure do spoil me! They had made a nice birthday lunch and we had a fun little party. It was great to be able to just sit and visit and catch up on each other's lives. They all gave me lovely presents and sweet cards. Sure do love them!

What a lucky girl I am to have been born into this loving family. I often wish we lived closer so we could enjoy more wonderful days like this one together.

Yesterday, I was feeling kind of gloomy. Don't like the quiet of the house, missing the kids. I think Kelley feels it too, but he is great to keep a positive attitude and always trys to make me smile. I really appreciate that and have loved having him home these past two weeks.
After we went to the gym, (oh why did I do those squats???) , we decided to go to the temple. We go every month with the sealing group, but it has been a while since we did a endowment session together.
When I came out of the dressing room, there was Kelley sitting there waiting for me with his brother Kim. I was pretty surprised to see him there because he serves as an ordinance worker at the Draper Temple three days a week. He said he had missed being a patron so he decided to come to this temple to do some work today. He said he wanted to come on the session with us, so we waited while he changed his clothes. When we went upstairs, the session was just going in and they said for us to go with them, but Kim wasn't there yet and we wanted to go with him, so we waitied for the next session. When we told the sister that was directing the people into the session what we were doing, she said, "Oh I understand, these things happen for a reason you know...you could be the witness couple in the next session." And sure enough, we were. We have done this before, but for some reason, this time I felt a special sweetness and deeper love for my husband as I knelt next to him on the alter. It was like I knew him or could understand his soul in a whole new way. When we stood in the prayer circle, I couldn't stop the tears as he offered up a prayer for those in that session who had come to find the answers and peace that you can only find in the temple.
Bishop Burns asked me to talk in Sacrement meeting about the importance of going to the temple. Although speaking in church horrifies me, I don't think I will have a hard time coming up with ideas for that.

We didn't get an email on Wednesday this week, but this one came on Thursday morning to Kelley. I had attached a few pictures to the email I sent him, and he didn't get it, so it must have been too big. It's frustrating when that happens...just want to call him and say hey...
Anyway, his letter was great. Love to hear how his testimony is growing and of his love for these people. (also to hear that he is still my same funny, sensitive, strong, thoughtful, spiritual, humble boy)

Subject: HEY> From: kcjensen@myldsmail.net> To: jkj51156@hotmail.com> Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 14:57:50 +0000> > 0f course you got skunked! Guess who wasnt there to save you! haha. Im glad you guys went though, was it cold? It has been pretty chilly here lately, probably close to 0 or a couple negative, Im not sure. Im not sure if mom tried to email me and it didnt work or what but I didnt get one from her. So I will just send my email to everyone to you and then you can just pass it along. We had a good week this week. We had a really awesome meeting with one of our investigators named Sergey, he is the husband of a member in our branch. We taught him about obedience and Prophets and gave them the November Liahona, but the best part was that he prayed at the end. He hadnt prayed in our meetings yet and it was like the sweetest sound every to hear him pray, one of those things you cant really explain, but it was amazing. Hopefully we can help him be baptized so that they can be sealed in the temple. We have given a couple blessings in the past couple weeks to members and it has really strengthened my testimony in the power of the priesthood, it really works and we can do miracles, even if they arent huge, they still testify. Elder Rudd and I have had some good talks lately and we are going to change a few things and hope for some more success, maybe you guys could pray for us to really be able and have the strenght to make the changes that we want to. Its easy to talk about but really hard to do, so I need the Lords help and your prayers. Today is actually Christmas in Russia, so Merry Christmas everyone. Mom, I have been enjoying that book you sent me, it is really good and has given me some good ideas of how I can serve better and be more obedient. I have had some really good experiences lately and I really have seen that when we do follow the guidance of the Prophets and be obedient God does bless us. I have seen bless me with more understanding than I have ever had and also real joy in doing his work. I love you guys,> Elder Jensen.>

My feelings exactly Lizzy...

Where'd she go?

Lizzy has been moaping around the house all day today. She will come up and tap us with her paw, then when we get up to let her out, she just runs around the kitchen like she's looking for something. I thought she might be happy to have some peace and quiet...Olivia really terrorized her. She would try to ride her, tie things around her neck, pull her paws out from under her, or pull her ears, and Lizzy would just sat there and take it.

Reading her "letter" while we shopped. She has a fascination with letters and mail boxes. She always comments when we would drive by one....Look! look at the mailbox! We would be like

" ummm, ya, that's cool Liv" So while she was here, we would play a game where I would write her little notes and put them in an envelope with her name on it. She would take very good care of it and carry it around with her where ever she went. Had a melt down when her mom told her to leave it in the car while we went into costco. She would get it out and read it (make up the funniest stories you ever heard) every once in a while, then stow it carefully in her "pack-pack".

This was on the way to the airport. Olivia was very excited to fly on the plane and see her daddy.
Some of my favorite things we did together:

Played hide and seek (1,2,3,6,10! ready or not, here me come!)

Read books

painted

skated

snuggled

played her new counting game (she's so smart!)

built a snowman

made cookies

took down Christmas tree

fed Lizzy popcorn

played Barbie's

Went to Frog Prince movie

sang songs out of Primary song book....she knows a lot of them!

One day Camille and I were going to go for a run down the canal road. When we were leaving, Olivia ran up to us and said "I have something for you!" She pretended to put something into our hands . I said "what is it?" and she said "just hold these sparkles and hearts"

If you had to describe Olivia, you could just say those two words and that would be pretty close. She is so full of life and fun and giggles and squeals, she just sparkles... and she is full of love and sweetness and is very willing to share it with everyone around her!

Now that she has gone home, I've been feeling kind of blue, so I need to get out my sparkles and hearts and remember all the fun we had togehter and be happy! (Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened ! gotta work on that)

I'm still holding them Liv

Happy Birthday to ME!

Well the weekend has flown by and it was all too soon time to take Katie to the airport. It was so nice to have her here for a few days where we had time just to bum around and not have to be rushed to be anywhere. We had fun shopping and baking and just snuggling on the couch watching movies.

Brian came over Saturday afternoon with his fiance (Yea!) Holly. She was really nice and seemed like she would just fit right into the family. We are all so happy he has found someone to share his life with. They are planning on getting married in May.

Rick and Stacey came over later and we had a nice visit. She brought me a sweet birthday gift...she's always so thoughtful ...I don't know when she finds time to do all she does.....between work, and taking care of her mother and all she does for her kids and grand kids, and she always finds time for friends too!

Today was a great day...well, it's my birthday and my family surely spoils me. I woke up to a lovely breakfast Camille made for me. I took Katie to the airport about 10:00...(bummer),
then came home and Olivia and I took down the "Jesus Christmas Tree". She was so sweet. She would take each ornament with Jesus picture in it carefully off of the tree, then she would say "That's Jesus in there!" or "these are very fribby!" (pretty) then she would hand it to me so I could wrap them up and put them in the box. She stuck with the job till the ornaments were all put away, then she said "Grandma, you put me up high and I will get the star". So I lifted her up as high as I could and she took the star off the top of the tree. Having her there with me turned what is usually kind of a depressing job into a special time that I will remember as one of my favorite things we did together while she was here. I'm sure going to miss them when they have to leave tomorrow.

Holly came over with Jeffery and Hannah and they played with Olivia for a while. They are such cute kids, and have soooo much energy. It was good to visit with Holly. Later, Candice and Meg came over and we all went out to dinner. Megan brought me a real pretty flower arrangement and a sweet card. We came back home for pie and presents. Kelley had picked up my favorite...double lemon cream from Marie Calendars and I ate a big fat piece ......Oh I've got to do better tomorrow! Everyone sure spoils me. Lots of lovely gifts and cards that mean so much. I just feel so lucky to have a great family that loves me and would really go out of their way to make my birthday a very special day for me. Sure do love you all.

Merrilee came over later with a lovely gift for me and a nice card and gift certificate for Kelley and I for helping her with Hannah's cradle. We had a real good visit. She is so sweet to always remember my birthday. I don't think she has missed one in the past 30 years!

I appreciate all of my sweet family and friends that took time out of their busy day to wish me a happy birthday. It certainly was.

This is K.C's last email. We had gotten a letter from his mission president saying that his p-day had been changed to Friday for this week so we were expecting an email that day. We were disappointed when we didn't get one, but figured something must have come up. Then we got this one on Saturday...it explains why he didn't write on Friday.

I am so grateful for a son that continues to teach me....

Happy New Year!‏
From:
Kelley Jensen (kcjensen@myldsmail.net)
Sent:
Sat 1/02/10 10:29 AM
To:
pjdaisy50@hotmail.com
Hey guys! How are things at home? Sounds like everyone is still there, that's awesome. This has been a weird week, I went to Kiev on Saturday morning, it is a really neat place, and strangely enough it seemed quite a bit different that Russia, things were cheaper and there weren't so many people. I got to see the temple sight too and they have a stake center right next to it, it is really neat to see how the church is growing in this area, hopefully we will be next to get a temple and a stake. We have been working a lot lately with a man named Lenid, he is deaf, kinda, he thinks hes deafer than he is, and he has some problems and is lonely, So we are trying to make him feel loved and get him to come back to church. He told us a story about how he went home teaching and the people didn't answer the door when they came and he got real upset so we asked him if he wanted to teach us so he taught us a little lesson there and is preparing another one for us next week. He is way funny, i will take a picture with him and send it, hes just impossible to describe, I love him, and it turns out he loves to fish, so I am going to go with him some time. He loved talking about fishing and he makes his own flies. We had a new years party and about 10 elders came and we all watched movies and played games until late and we got to sleep in until 8 the next day so that was fun. New years is HUGE here, it kinda took the place of Christmas during the Soviet times, so they love it and they are still kinda celebrating. They drink a ton though on this day so we had to come in early on Thursday and be in on Friday if we didn't have meetings. So it has been kind of a weird week, but I had lots of time to think and i figured a bunch of stuff out, so things should go even better that before from now on. We were cleaning our apartment yesterday and I suddenly just felt overwhelmed with homesickness, just out of no where and I really felt awful. I dont know what it was, i kept trying to just be optimistic and be happy again, but nothing worked. So I had a really good prayer and I figured a bunch of stuff out. I really felt the love of my Heavenly Father While I prayed, I received so much comfort that only God can give, It is amazing the difference that prayer can make. Christ really does know all of us and all of our sorrows because of the atonement, I know that for sure. So when you need help remember that he is always there to help, you don't have to carry your load alone. I know i couldn't carry mine alone and I am so grateful for My knowledge that my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ really love and care for me and desire my happiness. Thanks for your prayers and love, and for the great gifts you guys sent me, I haven't received any more packages, but I will tell you for sure when I do. I need to go, but I love you guys and I hope you re all doing well, I'm doing really well.Love Elder Jensen.

Red Iguana..... mmmmmmmmm

We decided to celebrate my birthday a little early while Katie was still here. Kate called earlier and made a reservation at Red Iguana. It's a good thing she did cause when we got there there was an hour and a half wait, but we got to go right in and sit down! Hurray for reservations! It's just a tiny restaurant in an old building in a bad part of town, but it's always packed because the food is amazing!

Candice invited her friend Aaron and it was nice to get to know him a little better.
They have singers walking around the restaurant taking requests for songs. They sang a song to me in Spanish that was really beautiful ...then ended it with " everybody join with us to wish happy birthday!" and they all sang happy birthday to me!

Then Kate suggested that since it was my birthday, everyone should tell something funny or something they liked about me. Oh my sweet family, thank you for your sweet words. I am so lucky to have each of you in my life. I love you too.

What a fun night!

I skate...you skate

We thought it would be fun to go skating Saturday afternoon so we went over to the skating rink at Murray park.
They had cute little skates to fit Olivia, but not any size 15's for Kelley.
So he got to watch from the bleachers. He may have been secretly happy they didn't have any skates to fit him...didn't seem to mind being the picture taker-purse and coat holder at all!

It's been about 35 years since I was on ice skates and it looked like it!
Kate was pretty shaky too but was a good sport about it. The old skating lessons came right back to Camille and I think she could have just zoomed away, but she didn't.

Wish Candice could have come with us...Dan called this morning and asked her to come into work...she needed the money, so she went. That would have been great to have her and Camille busting out their old skating moves again!

Anyway, we had some good laughs and no one fell down! We held on to each other the whole time and that made it fun!

Olivia did really well and had a fun time. I think she may have some skating potential!

Happy 2010!

Got to ring in the new year with our dear friends...

Had a yummy dinner of fajitas, then had a chance to catch up on what was going on in each other's lives.

It's so nice to know that no matter what happens, or how things change, our friends will always be there for us. They are always concerned about what's going on with everyone in the family. We have been through a lot and shared our joy's and sorrow's with these friends and pray for them as they go through struggles and hard times.....as they have for us. I know it is a rare and special thing to have friends like these over these many years and I thank the Lord every night for the blessing of good friends.

In the meadow we can build a snowman...

Lot's of fun playing in the snow !

Lizzy wants to help with the arms

Sledding with Ryder

Lets go daddy!